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Is This Really What We Sound Like?
I listened to another Christian talk the other day. They were defining what it means to “really be a Christian.” I know they meant well, but as I listened I just felt discouraged. People who were not following the rules didn’t make the cut: they lived with their significant others before marriage, didn’t attend the right churches, or didn’t have enough fruit in their lives. I found myself wondering if this person knew that I often enjoy a good beer or a glass of wine. Did the fact that they were bolding confiding in me mean they thought I was good enough? Or were they trying to send me a…
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Celebrities for Jesus and Fred Rogers
In a time when large swaths of the America church have merely mimicked worldly concepts of power, going for bigger, louder, glitzier, we have to return to the small, the quiet, the uncool, and the ordinary. Obscurity may very well be the spiritual discipline the American church needs to practice the most in the coming century. Katelyn Beaty, Celebrities for Jesus My husband and I finally watched It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, the Tom Hanks movie from 2019 about Fred Rogers. Wow. I had instant childhood flashbacks–sitting in my grandma’s den on her little couch, drinking my glass of orange juice, and watching Mr. Rogers calmly explain things…
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Shaking Up Tradition and Religion
I have a new theme song! Have you ever had a song resonate so deeply that it feels like the theme of your life? This one has been out since 2021, but I just heard it for the first time at the writers conference I was attending last weekend. Yes, writers conference! We will get to that. Also, hello there! It’s been a while. 🙂 “Shake up the ground of all my tradition. Breakdown the walls of all my religion. Your way is better. Your way is better.” Joshua Neil Farro / Rebekah Erin White / Lucas Salles Cortazio / Evelyn Braun Heideriqui This bridge is the heart of everything…
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The Tapestry of Faith
Apparently I’ve become a different kind of writer lately. I wrote another poem thing almost two months ago while listening to The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast by Christianity Today. I originally shared it on Instagram, but it feels fitting to share it here as well. The start of Season Five of my podcast, Looking for the Real God, is all about faith deconstruction. I quoted this on the podcast today as I reminded my listeners that it is possible to deconstruct our beliefs without deconverting from the historical Christian faith. More than anything I know that Jesus is Real. But I also know that we have messed…
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Worshiping the Baals and Missing the Living God
I found The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast thanks to someone I follow on Instagram. Produced by Christianity Today and hosted by Mike Cosper, the podcast describes the story of the Seattle based megachurch and it’s pastor Mark Driscoll. But even more than that, it digs into the background of Mars Hill and the Christian culture of the last 40-50 years which produced the disaster that followed. They’ve only released the first two episodes, but I’m already hooked. This feels like I’m getting the missing half of the conversation that started with Kristin Kobes Du Mez’ book Jesus and John Wayne. But unlike Du Mez who seemed to…
